Freeman is another quarterback with very good talent. Thereís a lot to like about his skill set, including a naturally strong arm. But hereís the issue, and it still exists after two full seasons as a starter: There are too many plays in which Freemanís footwork and balance are uneven as he drops and sets in the pocket. He just does not look the same drop after drop. That negatively affects his weight transfer, which impacts his ability to drive through his throws and ultimately reduces his arm strength. The result is that a quarterback with a strong arm doesnít always throw that way.
When I studied Freeman in 2010, his outstanding sophomore season, I saw elements of Ben Roethlisberger. He was similar in size, about 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. And like Roethlisberger, Freeman was much more of a playmaker than a precision quarterback. He has a strong body, with the movement skills to escape and the strength to shed pass rushers. And most critically, he has the ability to keep his focus downfield and make throws at the intermediate and deeper levels.

Freemanís size and mobility, however, camouflaged some concerns that were evident on tape in 2010. And as we know, the eye in the sky never lies. I already mentioned his technique issues, but they were exacerbated by a nagging tendency to drift in the pocket, rather than drop straight back on what we call the midline. His accuracy was at times scattershot; he missed on too many throws that you need to make. Most people donít make the connection between proper technique repeated over and over, but it may be the most decisive factor in producing precise ball location.

I remember the Redskins game in early December of 2010. Thereís no question a Jim Haslett defense gives a quarterback a lot of looks, both before and after the snap, but Freeman really struggled reading coverage. I sensed he predetermined a lot of his throws in the pre-snap phase, failing to properly assess the coverage after taking the snap. One thing that did stand out in 2010 was Freemanís willingness to make tough throws; he was not tentative pulling the trigger. He made a lot of tight window throws. Thatís a positive.

The overall point is that Freemanís 2010 season, while the numbers looked good on paper, was not quite as strong as the perception. There were some concerns that needed to be addressed if he was going to reach the ďeliteĒ status many had already bestowed upon him. Those issues remained in 2011, and consequently Freemanís third season spiraled downhill fairly quickly. I remember finishing the San Francisco tape on the seasonís fifth Sunday ó a game Tampa Bay lost 48-3 ó and being very surprised at what a poor job Freeman did recognizing and reading coverage. He missed basic reads. He left the pocket too early, with no pressure forcing him to do so, because he was not getting a clear picture of the defense. Two weeks later against the Bears, he continued to struggle with his reads, his decision making and his accuracy. Make no mistake, the erratic accuracy is a serious matter.

Later in the 2011 season, Freeman showed some improvement. The Green Bay game in November was a strong effort. He was better in all areas, particularly progression reading and overall accuracy. But the bottom line is this: As Freeman enters the 2012 season, he remains a work in progress, a talented signal caller who has yet to refine the subtle disciplines of NFL quarterback play. Heís more sporadic playmaker than precise passer. Thereís no question he has the tools to take that next step, and with a new coaching staff, I would not be surprised if we see significant improvement.

Anaylsis from before the season. All of those bolded, to me, still no improvement.

If we all know that Freeman will never be Peyton, Tom, or Aaron but we continue to support him then we deserve to be where we are at.

Like I said I understand that having a slim chance in the next decade of winning a Super Bowl is a blessing for some Franchises and fan bases (like us) but I think we should demand more of our Franchise.

lmao, what?

You've got to be kidding me. So if our QB isn't a HOF caliber guy we should just chalk it up for our franchise? Or, better yet if isn't a HOF guy we should just keep demanding for this team to draft a QB to be a HOF caliber.

You are right, many of those issues remain. The one issue that doesn't, the points you underlined, is his ability to read coverages.

We have implemented a Run and Shoot offense that is predicated on sight adjustments. Freeman and his targets have to see the same thing. A play will be called in the huddle, but based on the defense Freeman can check to something different at the line. Even after the ball is snapped there are sight adjustments depending on the secondary's technique (trail, inside leverage, etc.). If you are going to succeed in this offense as a QB you need to be able to read defenses. While he has struggled down the stretch he is going to finish with over 4,000 passing yards and close to 30 TDs in this offense. How in the world can someone be unable to read coverages and produce like that? It's stunning to me that people in our fanbase still think that Freeman struggles to read coverages.

Spotty technique and inconsistent footwork, sure. Those are definitely issues that he needs to fix. Reading coverages? Absolutely not. He has proven that he understands how to read and dissect coverages both pre and post snap. If anything, this is where he has shown the most progress._________________

You are right, many of those issues remain. The one issue that doesn't, the points you underlined, is his ability to read coverages.

We have implemented a Run and Shoot offense that is predicated on sight adjustments. Freeman and his targets have to see the same thing. A play will be called in the huddle, but based on the defense Freeman can check to something different at the line. Even after the ball is snapped there are sight adjustments depending on the secondary's technique (trail, inside leverage, etc.). If you are going to succeed in this offense as a QB you need to be able to read defenses. While he has struggled down the stretch he is going to finish with over 4,000 passing yards and close to 30 TDs in this offense. How in the world can someone be unable to read coverages and produce like that? It's stunning to me that people in our fanbase still think that Freeman struggles to read coverages.

Spotty technique and inconsistent footwork, sure. Those are definitely issues that he needs to fix. Reading coverages? Absolutely not. He has proven that he understands how to read and dissect coverages both pre and post snap. If anything, this is where he has shown the most progress.

Bulk yardage stats mean very little, especially when you'll probably see 13 QBs throw for 4,000 yards. 30 TDs is nice, but more than half that came in a 5-6 game streak. The other 10 games he isn't going nuts on TDs.

I really want to agree with you but I don't think you throw 8 picks in 2 games and not have some issue with reading coverages. I think RnP is a little harsh on it, but I do believe Freeman does have some issue there.

You are right, many of those issues remain. The one issue that doesn't, the points you underlined, is his ability to read coverages.

We have implemented a Run and Shoot offense that is predicated on sight adjustments. Freeman and his targets have to see the same thing. A play will be called in the huddle, but based on the defense Freeman can check to something different at the line. Even after the ball is snapped there are sight adjustments depending on the secondary's technique (trail, inside leverage, etc.). If you are going to succeed in this offense as a QB you need to be able to read defenses. While he has struggled down the stretch he is going to finish with over 4,000 passing yards and close to 30 TDs in this offense. How in the world can someone be unable to read coverages and produce like that? It's stunning to me that people in our fanbase still think that Freeman struggles to read coverages.

Spotty technique and inconsistent footwork, sure. Those are definitely issues that he needs to fix. Reading coverages? Absolutely not. He has proven that he understands how to read and dissect coverages both pre and post snap. If anything, this is where he has shown the most progress.

Bulk yardage stats mean very little, especially when you'll probably see 13 QBs throw for 4,000 yards. 30 TDs is nice, but more than half that came in a 5-6 game streak. The other 10 games he isn't going nuts on TDs.

I really want to agree with you but I don't think you throw 8 picks in 2 games and not have some issue with reading coverages. I think RnP is a little harsh on it, but I do believe Freeman does have some issue there.

That's fair about bulk stats. If you want to look at YPA and TD% we can:

YPA - 7.35 (10th - best mark of his career)
TD% - 4.97% (10th)

The 8 picks in these last 2 have sucked, no question, but are they really a result of him not being able to read coverages? The two picks that come to mind where I question what he was looking at: the pick to Greer when he was covering Clark on that in route and the throw into quadruple coverage that Laurinaitis picked off last week.

He's not a finished product, I think that we all know that, but I believe that he has made a big leap this season when it comes to reading and understanding coverages. In a system that focuses so much on sight adjustments and reading coverages he has proven that he can do it._________________

You are right, many of those issues remain. The one issue that doesn't, the points you underlined, is his ability to read coverages.

We have implemented a Run and Shoot offense that is predicated on sight adjustments. Freeman and his targets have to see the same thing. A play will be called in the huddle, but based on the defense Freeman can check to something different at the line. Even after the ball is snapped there are sight adjustments depending on the secondary's technique (trail, inside leverage, etc.). If you are going to succeed in this offense as a QB you need to be able to read defenses. While he has struggled down the stretch he is going to finish with over 4,000 passing yards and close to 30 TDs in this offense. How in the world can someone be unable to read coverages and produce like that? It's stunning to me that people in our fanbase still think that Freeman struggles to read coverages.

Spotty technique and inconsistent footwork, sure. Those are definitely issues that he needs to fix. Reading coverages? Absolutely not. He has proven that he understands how to read and dissect coverages both pre and post snap. If anything, this is where he has shown the most progress.

Bulk yardage stats mean very little, especially when you'll probably see 13 QBs throw for 4,000 yards. 30 TDs is nice, but more than half that came in a 5-6 game streak. The other 10 games he isn't going nuts on TDs.

I really want to agree with you but I don't think you throw 8 picks in 2 games and not have some issue with reading coverages. I think RnP is a little harsh on it, but I do believe Freeman does have some issue there.

That's fair about bulk stats. If you want to look at YPA and TD% we can:

YPA - 7.35 (10th - best mark of his career)
TD% - 4.97% (10th)

The 8 picks in these last 2 have sucked, no question, but are they really a result of him not being able to read coverages? The two picks that come to mind where I question what he was looking at: the pick to Greer when he was covering Clark on that in route and the throw into quadruple coverage that Laurinaitis picked off last week.

He's not a finished product, I think that we all know that, but I believe that he has made a big leap this season when it comes to reading and understanding coverages. In a system that focuses so much on sight adjustments and reading coverages he has proven that he can do it.

Totally fair. But I also think he has proven that he still has work to do. If you focus on the bad than you will see there is room for improvement. If you focus on the good you will see he is capable. I think I am falling somewhere in between that.

You are right, many of those issues remain. The one issue that doesn't, the points you underlined, is his ability to read coverages.

We have implemented a Run and Shoot offense that is predicated on sight adjustments. Freeman and his targets have to see the same thing. A play will be called in the huddle, but based on the defense Freeman can check to something different at the line. Even after the ball is snapped there are sight adjustments depending on the secondary's technique (trail, inside leverage, etc.). If you are going to succeed in this offense as a QB you need to be able to read defenses. While he has struggled down the stretch he is going to finish with over 4,000 passing yards and close to 30 TDs in this offense. How in the world can someone be unable to read coverages and produce like that? It's stunning to me that people in our fanbase still think that Freeman struggles to read coverages.

Spotty technique and inconsistent footwork, sure. Those are definitely issues that he needs to fix. Reading coverages? Absolutely not. He has proven that he understands how to read and dissect coverages both pre and post snap. If anything, this is where he has shown the most progress.

Bulk yardage stats mean very little, especially when you'll probably see 13 QBs throw for 4,000 yards. 30 TDs is nice, but more than half that came in a 5-6 game streak. The other 10 games he isn't going nuts on TDs.

I really want to agree with you but I don't think you throw 8 picks in 2 games and not have some issue with reading coverages. I think RnP is a little harsh on it, but I do believe Freeman does have some issue there.

That's fair about bulk stats. If you want to look at YPA and TD% we can:

YPA - 7.35 (10th - best mark of his career)
TD% - 4.97% (10th)

The 8 picks in these last 2 have sucked, no question, but are they really a result of him not being able to read coverages? The two picks that come to mind where I question what he was looking at: the pick to Greer when he was covering Clark on that in route and the throw into quadruple coverage that Laurinaitis picked off last week.

He's not a finished product, I think that we all know that, but I believe that he has made a big leap this season when it comes to reading and understanding coverages. In a system that focuses so much on sight adjustments and reading coverages he has proven that he can do it.

Totally fair. But I also think he has proven that he still has work to do. If you focus on the bad than you will see there is room for improvement. If you focus on the good you will see he is capable. I think I am falling somewhere in between that.

Can't argue with one word of that.

I just don't want to fall into this paralysis by analysis where we critique every little attribute and forgot the whole picture. These last two games have people with pitchforks in their hands, but the reality is that Freeman has a better shot of getting an extension (although, I don't see it happening) then he does of being replaced this offseason._________________

Yards per attempt: he was over 8 heading into the Carolina game. It's dropped to 7.35 since. That is not very good.

And if he has "no trouble" reading coverages, please explain the confused look on his face or his poorly thrown balls that he got away with in dropped INTs.

During that 5 game span, I noticed, playing pourous defenses, that a lot of decisions were very poor, but got away with a lot of dropped ints. Yes, I know, QBs get away with them from TIME TO TIME. But Freeman, I noticed, got away with quite a few more than your average 2nd tier QB. Philadelphia: I counted about 5 or 6. That's pretty poor.

I'll say this: I think Sully dials up too much Play Action, but Free has to see defenses are bringing the heat.

Week 7 against the Saints: he had a career day. The Saints mixed things up and he had no idea what was going on. That is an issue. That shows you can easily confuse Freeman.

I hope he shuts people up, including myself, and has an All Pro year next year and guides the Bucs into the playoffs. But I think certain flaws, if not corrected in year 4, are still hard to break.,

Yards per attempt: he was over 8 heading into the Carolina game. It's dropped to 7.35 since. That is not very good.

And if he has "no trouble" reading coverages, please explain the confused look on his face or his poorly thrown balls that he got away with in dropped INTs.

Sorry...I can't get into his head so I can't explain why he makes a certain face. I can only speculate, but haven't we seen him have this confused look when WRs run poor routes and miss sight adjustments? Haven't we seen him make this face when he just flat out misses a throw?

REDandPEWTER wrote:

During that 5 game span, I noticed, playing pourous defenses, that a lot of decisions were very poor, but got away with a lot of dropped ints. Yes, I know, QBs get away with them from TIME TO TIME. But Freeman, I noticed, got away with quite a few more than your average 2nd tier QB. Philadelphia: I counted about 5 or 6. That's pretty poor.

Last year Football Outsiders created a new metric adjusted for dropped interceptions and interceptions caused by a receiver dropping a pass. We'll see where Freeman ranks.

REDandPEWTER wrote:

I'll say this: I think Sully dials up too much Play Action, but Free has to see defenses are bringing the heat.

I completely disagree. Freeman has really done damage this season in play-action. With a talented back like Martin we have to utilize the play-action passing game.

Week 7 against the Saints: he had a career day. The Saints mixed things up and he had no idea what was going on. That is an issue. That shows you can easily confuse Freeman.

I hope he shuts people up, including myself, and has an All Pro year next year and guides the Bucs into the playoffs. But I think certain flaws, if not corrected in year 4, are still hard to break.,

It seems like you are jumping to assumptions because Freeman had a poor game the second time we faced the Saints. How did they mix it up in the second game? They seemed to get more pressure on him, but I didn't see them do anything differently in the secondary._________________

What makes that Saints performance pretty bad is, they lined up 8 in the box multiple times and Freeman couldn't beat them.

Look: Stats are really misleading. I mean, look what many say about McCoy: 5 sacks. but his presence was well known.

Freeman's stats have been vastly inflated. Poor defenses and he's completed a lot of deep 50/50 balls. Not saying it's bad, smart thing to do when you have Jackson and Williams and even Underwood has caught a few deep jump balls. But you can't live by that.

The YPA have dropped from 8.1 to 7.35 in a span of 6 games. That's a huge fallout. And you also can factor the garbage time stats against New Orleans/St Louis and Denver.

Stats mean nothing. Especially when you're not beating the teams you need to.

I think people get too caught up in stats. Look, Freeman has some good numbers this year, but can you honestly say that he looks like a quarterback who can take us to a superbowl? If you generalize trends and just look at him now, as a quarterback, you see a guy who:

- Misses wide open receivers constantly
- Holds on to the ball WAY too long
- Fumbles as a result
- Throws a ton of lame balls where him and the receiver miscommunicated (I know it's not always his fault, but jeez this happens about 7 times a game..too much)
- Throws tantrums
- Stares down primary reads
- Did I mention he misses wide open receivers constantly?
- Fails to notice wide open receivers elsewhere on the field away from his primary read

Now, I'm not trying to be a "hater" on Freeman. I want him to succeed so badly, he has all the physical tools and attitude to become great, but right now, he is holding the offense back. It all boils down to his accuracy for me. Yeah, he will throw for 4,000 yards this year, but most of those came during that stretch where the bomb jumpballs to VJax and Williams were mostly being caught. Fact is, he just misses guys...all the time. Even routine passes that are sometimes caught and therefore overlooked are constantly off. Receivers in the NFL should not have to dive to make a 6 yard catch on a hook, but this is commonplace for Freeman.

Overall, I just no longer think Freeman can be the guy. You can dial up all the stats in the world to show why he's good, and many of those stats are very valid, I'm just saying that for me, he fails the eyeball test greatly. That being said, we gotta keep him for next year. He is better than any prospect in the draft or free agency in my opinion, so replacing him now does us no good. If we can get a better pass defense, and the return of Nicks/Joseph up front, maybe he can be managed enough not to screw up games for us until a better replacement (Teddy Bridgewater?) can be found._________________

I think people get too caught up in stats. Look, Freeman has some good numbers this year, but can you honestly say that he looks like a quarterback who can take us to a superbowl? If you generalize trends and just look at him now, as a quarterback, you see a guy who:

- Misses wide open receivers constantly
- Holds on to the ball WAY too long
- Fumbles as a result
- Throws a ton of lame balls where him and the receiver miscommunicated (I know it's not always his fault, but jeez this happens about 7 times a game..too much)
- Throws tantrums
- Stares down primary reads
- Did I mention he misses wide open receivers constantly?
- Fails to notice wide open receivers elsewhere on the field away from his primary read

Now, I'm not trying to be a "hater" on Freeman. I want him to succeed so badly, he has all the physical tools and attitude to become great, but right now, he is holding the offense back. It all boils down to his accuracy for me. Yeah, he will throw for 4,000 yards this year, but most of those came during that stretch where the bomb jumpballs to VJax and Williams were mostly being caught. Fact is, he just misses guys...all the time. Even routine passes that are sometimes caught and therefore overlooked are constantly off. Receivers in the NFL should not have to dive to make a 6 yard catch on a hook, but this is commonplace for Freeman.

Overall, I just no longer think Freeman can be the guy. You can dial up all the stats in the world to show why he's good, and many of those stats are very valid, I'm just saying that for me, he fails the eyeball test greatly. That being said, we gotta keep him for next year. He is better than any prospect in the draft or free agency in my opinion, so replacing him now does us no good. If we can get a better pass defense, and the return of Nicks/Joseph up front, maybe he can be managed enough not to screw up games for us until a better replacement (Teddy Bridgewater?) can be found.

While I don't meant to speak for DRD, I think his general point is that there are QBs out there who produce less. While you might say Freeman had garbage time stats, so do those other QBs. There are other QBs who didn't flash elite talent, even against weak competition. And that is very true.

That being said, I believe we would be a winning team if we gave DanO some playing time in specific games.

I think people get too caught up in stats. Look, Freeman has some good numbers this year, but can you honestly say that he looks like a quarterback who can take us to a superbowl? If you generalize trends and just look at him now, as a quarterback, you see a guy who:

- Misses wide open receivers constantly
- Holds on to the ball WAY too long
- Fumbles as a result
- Throws a ton of lame balls where him and the receiver miscommunicated (I know it's not always his fault, but jeez this happens about 7 times a game..too much)
- Throws tantrums
- Stares down primary reads
- Did I mention he misses wide open receivers constantly?
- Fails to notice wide open receivers elsewhere on the field away from his primary read

Now, I'm not trying to be a "hater" on Freeman. I want him to succeed so badly, he has all the physical tools and attitude to become great, but right now, he is holding the offense back. It all boils down to his accuracy for me. Yeah, he will throw for 4,000 yards this year, but most of those came during that stretch where the bomb jumpballs to VJax and Williams were mostly being caught. Fact is, he just misses guys...all the time. Even routine passes that are sometimes caught and therefore overlooked are constantly off. Receivers in the NFL should not have to dive to make a 6 yard catch on a hook, but this is commonplace for Freeman.

Overall, I just no longer think Freeman can be the guy. You can dial up all the stats in the world to show why he's good, and many of those stats are very valid, I'm just saying that for me, he fails the eyeball test greatly. That being said, we gotta keep him for next year. He is better than any prospect in the draft or free agency in my opinion, so replacing him now does us no good. If we can get a better pass defense, and the return of Nicks/Joseph up front, maybe he can be managed enough not to screw up games for us until a better replacement (Teddy Bridgewater?) can be found.

While I don't meant to speak for DRD, I think his general point is that there are QBs out there who produce less. While you might say Freeman had garbage time stats, so do those other QBs. There are other QBs who didn't flash elite talent, even against weak competition. And that is very true.

That being said, I believe we would be a winning team if we gave DanO some playing time in specific games.

I think people get too caught up in stats. Look, Freeman has some good numbers this year, but can you honestly say that he looks like a quarterback who can take us to a superbowl? If you generalize trends and just look at him now, as a quarterback, you see a guy who:

- Misses wide open receivers constantly
- Holds on to the ball WAY too long
- Fumbles as a result
- Throws a ton of lame balls where him and the receiver miscommunicated (I know it's not always his fault, but jeez this happens about 7 times a game..too much)
- Throws tantrums
- Stares down primary reads
- Did I mention he misses wide open receivers constantly?
- Fails to notice wide open receivers elsewhere on the field away from his primary read

Now, I'm not trying to be a "hater" on Freeman. I want him to succeed so badly, he has all the physical tools and attitude to become great, but right now, he is holding the offense back. It all boils down to his accuracy for me. Yeah, he will throw for 4,000 yards this year, but most of those came during that stretch where the bomb jumpballs to VJax and Williams were mostly being caught. Fact is, he just misses guys...all the time. Even routine passes that are sometimes caught and therefore overlooked are constantly off. Receivers in the NFL should not have to dive to make a 6 yard catch on a hook, but this is commonplace for Freeman.

Overall, I just no longer think Freeman can be the guy. You can dial up all the stats in the world to show why he's good, and many of those stats are very valid, I'm just saying that for me, he fails the eyeball test greatly. That being said, we gotta keep him for next year. He is better than any prospect in the draft or free agency in my opinion, so replacing him now does us no good. If we can get a better pass defense, and the return of Nicks/Joseph up front, maybe he can be managed enough not to screw up games for us until a better replacement (Teddy Bridgewater?) can be found.

While I don't meant to speak for DRD, I think his general point is that there are QBs out there who produce less. While you might say Freeman had garbage time stats, so do those other QBs. There are other QBs who didn't flash elite talent, even against weak competition. And that is very true.

That being said, I believe we would be a winning team if we gave DanO some playing time in specific games.

There is not a single free agent QB that is an upgrade over Freeman. And we can't use a 1st rounder on a QB with the holes in our secondary. I'd like Landry Jones in the 3rd round, though, not as a replacement, but as competition. I don't believe Freeman needs to be replaced, but competition brings out the best in all of us. It's never a bad thing (unless it gets to be a controversy).
Get off the man's nuts, people! He hasn't done that bad considering his teams weren't all that good until this year. And he looked pretty good until the last month. We were even a playoff contender until we fell apart against Philly.